1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to toy molding and cutting devices, and more particularly to a combined toy for simply yet uniquely stamping and cutting off formed articles in a fun and interesting way though rotation of a single driving mechanism. The invention also relates to a method for stamping and cutting off formed articles.
2. Background of the Invention
There are many known devices for manipulating formable materials or modeling compound in various ways such as extruding, propelling, molding and slicing formed articles. Many of the known devices employ extruders or auger like mechanisms to propel a formable material toward a second mechanism for further manipulation of the formable material. A couple of the known devices slice or shred materials with slicing rollers and shredders employing a hand crank. None of the known devices however, employ cooperating rollers which form and stamp the formable material at a molding surface of the rollers and further cut off articles formed by the rollers by further employing an angular projection defining a cutting edge at a final rib of the cooperating rollers.
There are several known devices which employ an auger like mechanism to extrude or propel a formable material through a cylindrical passage toward a second mechanism for further manipulation. The formable material is further extruded through a stationary perforated plate, as exemplified and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,259,623, issued Oct. 14, 1940 to C. W. Dieckmann. The auger in Dieckmann has a spider attached to a forward end with knife blades on each spider arm to rotate across the inner face of the stationary plate thereby cutting material pressed against the plate by the auger and discharging it through the perforations.
Other known molding devices employing an auger like mechanism propel the formable material to an extrusion nozzle, as exemplified and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,572,259 issued Jul. 8, 1969 to Hayashi. The extruded formable material is then separated into individual pieces by external cutters. Another known device employing an auger like mechanism presents the formable material to a dough divider as exemplified and disclosed in US Patent Publication No. US 2002/0098255 A1 published Jul. 25, 2002 to Ayash. The formable material is pushed along by the auger like mechanism through the dough divider to create multiple sub-streams of formable material.
Another known device employing an auger like mechanism includes a plurality of teeth along a spiral edge of an auger, as exemplified and disclosed in German Patent No. DE 199 24 826 A 1 issued May 5, 1999 to Blumenschein. The teeth extend along only part of the spiral edge of the auger and are absent at the final turn of the spiral edge. The teeth appear to engage a second mechanism to ride along the teeth and rotate the auger.
There are also several known devices employing a nozzle to propel a flowable material onto a support structure for further embossing or molding. The nozzle extrudes or propels the flowable material onto a support structure as exemplified and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,496,262 issued Feb. 17, 1970 to Long et al. or into a storage area as exemplified and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,815 issued Feb. 11, 1986 to Rentz et al. Long et al further discloses a strip of flowable material extruding from the nozzle and then embossed with an embossing roller to define a pattern on a surface of the strip. Rentz et al, on the other hand, further discloses a piston propelling the flowable material and a manually operable lever means pivoting about the piston to express flowable material into the storage area which is operable with different receiving members for simultaneously propelling and embossing of the flowable material.
There are also known devices for manipulating formable materials employing slicing rollers and shredders. A device employing a pair of cutter rollers is rotatably supported and driven by a gear mechanism to slice formable material, such as bread, into a plurality of elongated segments, as exemplified and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,423 issued Sep. 13, 1994 to Caveza et al. The formable material is fed into the cutting rollers which are manually rotated to simultaneously slice the material in numerous places producing a plurality of elongated segments. In another device a shredder is employed and connected to a hand crank for shredding chewing gum, as exemplified and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,355 issued Jan. 2, 1996 to Caveza.
Significantly, known molding and cutting devices do not include a combined mechanism for simply yet uniquely stamping and cutting off formed articles in a fun and interesting way though rotation of a single drive mechanism. It would be desirable to provide a toy having cooperating rollers with a stamp on a molding surface of the rollers and at least one angular projection defining at least one cutting edge along a final rib of at least one roller. A gear mechanism is in mechanical communication with the cooperating rollers and a driving mechanism is in mechanical communication with the gear mechanism, such that rotation of the driving mechanism rotates the rollers that cooperate to stamp and cut off articles formed on the molding surface of the rollers.